{"id":68412,"date":"2017-11-03T07:39:37","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T14:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=68412"},"modified":"2017-11-03T07:39:37","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T14:39:37","slug":"why-you-must-challenge-yourself-in-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/03\/why-you-must-challenge-yourself-in-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Must Challenge Yourself in Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dear friend,<\/p>\n

We need a bold, epic, and difficult challenge in life \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in order to test our strength, will, tenacity, and endurance.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

CONQUER YOUR FEARS AND MEET NEW PEERS ><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

1. We all have the will to power<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is my philosophy:<\/p>\n

As humans, we are biological organisms that have a will to power \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a will to growing bigger, stronger, a will to explore, a will to extend our influence, a will to expand, and a will to over-power (Nietzsche).<\/p>\n

In order to grow stronger, we need an opportunity<\/em> to test our strength. We need an opportunity<\/em> to test our will-power, endurance, and ability.<\/p>\n

\"LEONARDO
Vitruvian Man: LEONARDO DA VINCI x ERIC KIM SKETCH<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Therefore, without a challenge in life or without difficulty to challenge our limits \u00e2\u20ac\u201dwe could never grow stronger.<\/p>\n

2. We need to dictate our own challenges for ourselves<\/h2>\n
\"NYC,
NYC, 2017 #cindyproject<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In all domains in life, we need a challenge.<\/p>\n

At our jobs, my theory is that we hate and get bored of our jobs, not because of the job itself \u00e2\u20ac\u201d but we aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t being challenged in the right ways. For example, our jobs are just stressing us out and overwhelming us instead of challenging us in meaningful ways. We need challenges at our jobs which test and challenge our creative thinking and problem-solving abilities. We need to have the opportunity to manage and lead our own (small) teams. We need fewer emails and fewer dumb meetings \u00e2\u20ac\u201d more smart challenges to face, and fix.<\/p>\n

\"LEONARDO
LEONARDO DA VINCI x ERIC KIM TRACE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In our visual artistry, we need more challenging works of art to make and imagine. If photography is boring you \u00e2\u20ac\u201d add more meaningful challenges to your photography. Advance your compositions by making your pictures more dynamic and simple. Perhaps instead of black and white, try color. Add layers and multiple subjects, not just single subjects.<\/p>\n

\"Cindy
Kyoto, 2017 #cindyproject<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a writer, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t keep writing essays or compositions which bore you. Challenge yourself and your writing \u00e2\u20ac\u201d by writing about topics which challenge your mind, or which challenge your writing style.<\/p>\n

\"Fibonacci<\/p>\n

Never let others to force their style and challenges unto you \u00e2\u20ac\u201d dictate your own challenges to and for yourself.<\/p>\n

3. No challenge, no growth.<\/h2>\n
\"HAPTIC
HAPTIC LINES by ANNETTE KIM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In working out and physical strengthening exercises \u00e2\u20ac\u201d my suggestion is going to the gym solo, or to the park by yourself and make fun physical challenges for yourself. For example, I always try to increase the \u00e2\u20ac\u01531 rep maximum\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for deadlifts at the gym. When I go to the park, I try to do more chin-ups or pullups than I have been able to do in the past. Or when I do yoga (by myself at home), I always do more challenging poses to test myself and challenge myself \u00e2\u20ac\u201dfor fun.<\/p>\n

4. What is the right degree of challenge for you?<\/h2>\n
\"Cindy
Cindy and arms. Saigon, 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In video games and life – you need the right amount of challenge or difficulty, or life is boring.<\/p>\n

The tricky part:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. If the difficulty is too high or beyond your abilities, you will get stressed out, overwhelmed and not challenge yourself in a meaningful way, or reach your personal potential.<\/li>\n
  2. Yet, if the challenge or difficulty is too easy, you get bored and fall into apathy and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ennui\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Therefore, it is about finding the right difficulty, or the right degree or intensity of challenge for you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"Portrait
    Portrait by Cindy Nguyen. Hanoi, 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    My practical suggestion:<\/p>\n

    \n Try to challenge yourself 25% more than you think you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re capable of.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Failure doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exist \u00e2\u20ac\u201d only feedback.<\/strong> If you challenge yourself and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t succeed \u00e2\u20ac\u201d you haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t \u00e2\u20ac\u0153failed\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in a way that will hurt or damage your ego. No, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve just got feedback \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and will change your action or input accordingly.<\/p>\n

    5. Never stop challenging yourself<\/h2>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Are you hungry for a challenge in life.? I think you are.<\/p>\n

    And never forget: You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re 25% stronger than you think you are.<\/p>\n

    BE STRONG,
    \nERIC<\/p>\n

    CONQUER YOUR FEARS AND MEET NEW PEERS ><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Dear friend, We need a bold, epic, and difficult challenge in life \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in order to test our strength, will, tenacity, and endurance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/81B1A476-2E85-4636-8032-FB77D0CFDAC4.jpeg?fit=2000%2C1345&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68412"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68416,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68412\/revisions\/68416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}